Australia values India as top-tier security partner: Anthony Albanese

Canberra, July 9 (IANS) Highlighting India’s position as a top-tier security partner, Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese on Thursday said that the Joint Declaration on Defence and Security Cooperation marks a significant step towards strengthening bilateral ties and reflects shared commitment to a peaceful, stable and prosperous Indo-Pacific.

Addressing a joint press conference with Prime Minister Narendra Modi following their delegation-level talks in Melbourne, Albanese said, “With new landmark agreements, we are expanding our relationship across defence and security, education, science and technology, and energy security and critical minerals.”

The Australian PM said that India and Australia have released a joint declaration on defence and security cooperation to “deepen our practical partnership”.

“Australia values India as a top-tier security partner, and the declaration reflects our shared commitment to a peaceful, stable, and prosperous Indo-Pacific region,” he added.

“We will boost strategic coordination, increase the complexity of our defence exercises, and further build interoperability between our defence forces. We undertake to consult on defence-related developments in the Indo-Pacific that affect our shared interests. In addition, we have endorsed a joint maritime security collaboration roadmap and agreed to a new Australia-India partnership on cyber, critical technologies, and supply chains,” he added.

Describing Prime Minister Modi as “a true friend of Australia”, Albanese said it was a “great honour” to host the Indian leader for the annual leaders’ summit, asserting that Australia and India are “close partners and even closer friends” whose partnership has grown stronger.

“Six years into our comprehensive strategic partnership, Australia’s relationship with India has never been more consequential than it is today. Our partnership has never been stronger,” said the Australian PM.

“We share a focus on deepening and diversifying the relationship between our countries so we can continue to grow from strength to strength. Today, we have done exactly that across the breadth of our relationship,” he noted.

Emphasising that the conflict in West Asia has had economic repercussions worldwide, Albanese said he and Prime Minister Modi welcomed a joint statement on energy security.

“This statement recognises the importance of supply chain resilience and accelerating the energy transition, including promoting the uptake of renewable energy resources and the electrification of our energy systems. For too long, we have worked with connected supply chains but disconnected approaches. This action is a step to bridge that divide,” said the Australian PM.

Albanese announced the signing of an administrative arrangement to operationalise uranium exports to India for peaceful purposes under the 2015 Australia-India Nuclear Cooperation Agreement.

He said that the arrangement would facilitate Australian uranium exports to support India’s efforts to increase its non-fossil fuel power generation capacity, while creating an additional market for Australia’s resources sector.

“We have worked with connected supply chains but disconnected approaches. This action is a step to bridge that divide. Today, we can confirm the signing of the administrative arrangement to enable uranium exports to India for peaceful purposes under the 2015 Australia-India Nuclear Cooperation Agreement. The arrangement facilitates Australian uranium exports to India to help increase the share of non-fossil fuel power capacity, providing an additional market for the Australian resources sector,” the Australian PM stated.

–IANS

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